Korea Trip

 

For those of you who didn't know, i embarked on a trip to Korea recently for 7 days 6 nights with my parents. It was a very good trip, as it was interesting to experience and witness the Korean culture; it was both unique and fascinating. So instead of boring everyone with a day-to-day journal which i always tend to do after every trip, i figured i would just list down a few things i found very unusual and interesting about Korea and Koreans. Pictures are up on facebook for those who want to see how Korea looks like (picture are supposed to tell a thousand words) or wait for me to tell the stories in person.

1. The common one: Koreans eat kimchi everyday, every meal. Its fermented vege and its apparently very very good for your health. I hate it, unfortunately. And apparently you are not meant to finish it, according to Lonely Planet, and they throw away whatever's left behind. And they refill them if you finish them.
2. Koreans almost eat steamboat everyday. The tour guide mentioned that in Korean cooking the sauce and materials are more important than how you cook it. And also they put "ningko" in it (huh???).
3. Koreans eat their meat wrapped in cabbage.
4. Korean ginseng is the best in the world.
5. Koreans eat larva stew.....yup and according the hex it tastes great too. I think i took a glimpse at a stall selling it and instantly grossed out (did i spell that right?)
6. OK enough of food. In Korea, usually only the men work and the women stay behind and do the housework and take care of children. Seems a little unfair right? But wait, there's a catch! Men bring home the money....and gives them straight to the wife! They control the money in the house (bank?)! And we actually saw ppl asking their wife for money to grab some food.
7. Speaking about money. Koreans, both genders, spend 70% of their money on their looks (clothes, shoes, hairgrooming, PLASTIC SURGERRY)
8. Speaking about plastic surgery, it seems about 70% of them do it. And parents give it to them as graduation gifts before starting working life
9. So its no wonder that there are pretty Koreans girls around. But they are really heavily covered with makeup and you never know who has done surgery. You are looked down upon if you can't do makeup. Interestingly, i didn't find any cute f4-like Korean guys (or maybe it just proves how straight i am.
10. The remaining money is probably spent on petrol. Apparently their petrol prices are really really high and their parking rate in Seoul can go up to rm90 per 30 min. That's insane!
11. Dont worry guys, in Jeju island its the other way round. Women do the working and the men stay at home! Paradise!
12. Koreans give out Krispy Kreme for free because its not too popular in Korea. They're too healthy and hate sugar!
13. Korea is known to be a high tech country and its obvious. You can only use 3g in Korea, and free internet is everywhere. They don't even use ADSL anymore, they use VDSL (apparently much faster).
14. However during my 7 days there i failed to find a proper electronic shop except SONY. (Btw Korea's two biggest companies are LG and Samsung)
15. Probably not too surprising, but Koreans go to sauna completely naked.
16. So its obvious they are not too shy about their wee-wee, so toilet doors when opened you can basically directly see the urinals and the cubicals etc (the whole of the toilet). And most public toilets are permanently open.
17. And their hotels only give out small towels. As big as hand towels. Don't even think of wrapping your body with it.
18. The Korean police around the blue house (Korea's white house!) wears sports attire and are on skates!
19. Koreans are really enthusiastic especially in doing their job. In Everland theme park, every employee wave their hands frantically while screaming ANYONG ANYONG!!! when they see anyone. Apparently supposed to be twinkling stars or sumthing.
20. A bit unrelated, but Park Ji Sung is flat footed. Which means its supposed to hurt real bad when you run. He even got exempted for national service because it is considered and handicap. If you live under a shell, he is currently playing for Manchester United and is famous for his tireless running. I have new found respect for him.

That's all i can think about for now. Sorry for the delay!

 

NBA Playoffs 2008

So the NBA Playoffs are back on again, and it really sucks not being able to catch most of it. Things are starting off quite predictably, with most top seeds going through to the next round. There a few slight surprises, most notably the Boston-Atlanta Series which saw the Hawks drag the Celtics into a game 7. When i watched the games that Atlanta won, they really looked like a decent team and i just hope they don't fall into the category of Golden State Warriors. I mean, they pull one of the biggest upsets last year, creating a huge hype of what they could be this year, and now they're having holidays. I like young, energetic, hardworking team but they always seem to get to the first round, and then flop out years after that (look at Chicago Bulls).

Spurs-Suns was another disappointment to me. I never doubted that the Spurs is such a good team, but I was hoping the Shaq trade wouldn't slow the Suns down. But he did. Hopefully we'll see them adjust next year with almost certainly a new coach. Mike d Antoni in Bulls or Knicks would be interesting though. They are a much younger group and will benefit from the former Suns style.

And last but not least, my Houston Rockets. I've been rooting for them for quite some while, but i never saw them going far in the playoffs this year. But, i really think that they have a good group of players now and i hope they can build on that with a healthy Yao Ming next year. And if next year they flop again, its time to let T-Mac go (considering it doesn't happen in the offseason).

Chris Paul is having a break out season, but i think it's going to be the Lakers and Celtics at the summit, with the Lakers coming out on top. They are a whole different team with Pao, which i rate as the best center in the league, and with Kobe around they'll be hard to top.

Anyways, enjoy some of these comics i found. Don't bother reading it if you don't watch basketball.

 

 

Kenny G

Well, all of us know that Kenny G is this famous saxophone artist who has been around for quite some and I'm sure you can recognize most of his songs and not know the titles (since well they dont have lyrics). And we also know that sax sounds can put people to sleep or strip their clothes (they use them in sex scenes don't they?) so obviously i wasn't too excited to hear that my dad got us tickets to watch him perform in Genting. I mean, sure he plays well and all, but it's no rock show.

However, I am surprised and glad that it didn't turn out to be a snooze outing. Far from it actually. This is a guy who made an entrance from the back and walked down the aisle while playing a song (imagine having the cheapest seat in the house but get to be right next to him) and then he set up a box in the middle of the crowd to stand on and finish his song. All this while our Yang Dipertuan Agong is having his mandatory first class seat at the front, facing the opposite direction. It just shows how much respect he has for his fans and how professional he is as both a musician and a performer. His performances were mesmerising throughout and he puts in a nice variety by letting his bandmates steal the show occasionally (he has the best percussionist ever) and he also showed off how long he can hold a note for (he holds the longest record in the world with 47 minutes). In case you havent already figured out, he does it by breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth through the saxophone.

I know you're trying as you read this and failing miserably =P. Oh, and he played "The Moon Represents my Heart" which is the familiar chinese song that goes "ni wen.....wo ai......ni you.......kuo shen........ "

Let There Be Light!

Last Thursday my company was nice enough to organize a trip to Lightcraft for some workshop about....well.... lights. Lightcraft is an established international lighting company that offers consultations about lighting as well as offering a wide variety of high end lamps. If you haven't heard of it, you're probably not rich enough to own any of their products. You'll be lucky to find any lamps that has fewer than three digits on the price tag (not including cents of course!) and that includes those small lamps you hang on the walls or table lamps used for reading. The first hanging lamp we saw as we walked into the store had the price of a Kancil (for those living under the shell, its freaking 32k!!!!!!). It wasn't even a chandelier kinda thing, just a somewhat large modern simple roundish ceiling lamp. We were allowed to test every single lamp in the 5 storey showroom, but we were extra careful not to break anything or we'll have to spend the rest of the year just to pay back the money!

 

But of course, for that kind of money, you are also getting premium lamps. The lady was explaining the difference between buying an expensive lamp and a cheaper one, which is the reflectors which help distribute the light. They demonstrated many types of lights and effects they produce which really was very helpful, and it really shows how much you need to plan in advance during the design stage of architecture if you want to dynamic lighting on the interior and exterior of the building.

Some of the more impressive lamps were the designer wares that were imported from Italy. They all had a very contemporary design and were pushing the limits of light technology. There was a lamp where you could change the color temperature on the go to suit the ambience, a lamp that was like a worm and could be rolled up into a ball, a lamp with a lightbulb not connected through wires, and a table lamp that was so powerful and flexible that it could be switch between a reading light or an uplighter by twisting its head. Some of them were even design by Herzog de Meuron (to non-archi ppl, its the architect who designed some of the impressive Beijing Olympic Stadiums) but they were surprisingly the less impressive one. They should stick to buildings.

Before dinner, they did a nice short powerpoint presentation which was mostly boring stuff about different type of lamps (incandescent, fluorescent, halogen etc. ) but what was interesting was later on when he shows pictures of good and bad lightning. The good lighting that were shown were some streetlights they did which were uplighters, but somehow they were able to illuminate the streets very well. Its hard to describe with words but they created were quite impressive effects. The bad one though, was the highlight of the show. They were pictures of the new Bangkok Airport with some expensive German lamps at the top which emphasized the architecture and structure of the roof very well. Problem was, the airport was for millions of humans to use and the poor humans were trapped in darkness. None of the light fell back down onto them. The funny part was, now they actually "fixed it" by putting reflective wings at the top which helped bring the light back on the ground. So now not only is the architecture not highlighted anymore, the shadows from these lamps created batman signals all over the ceiling and it was just horrendous to look at. So, lesson learnt.

 

All in all, it was a worthy trip (free) and it was both knowledgeable and enjoyable at the same time. I wish i could have snapped more pictures but my phone was running out of battery so i only took some that caught my eye. Enjoy!

New Winamp Player is Out!!!!

I would buy one of these if they came out....just for collection's sake.

Ups and Downs in Basketball

I just came back from my usual Monday night basketball, and today's games were giving me mixed feelings. Our team had a good run in the beginning, we won the first and lost by a point in the second. They were both very good games and i didn't mind losing the second one at all. But after waiting a while we had another game, this time versus a lesser team. At least i thought so. We should have been able to win the match, but we didn't. And it was frustrating, especially when we had the same team that was so wonderful before. So we lost in a matter of minutes and decided to call it a night. I was tired.

Up :
Driving down the baseline and scoring on an impossible angle layup against a center to heads taller than you.
Down :
Missing a wide open three pointer on the next posession.

Up :
Throwing a pin point pass to a cutting teammate along the baseline for an easy hoop.
Down :
Throwing the perfect lob to a running teammate on the fast break only to blunder a wide open layup.

Up :
On an opposing fastbreak, dashing back on defense and managed to stop a wide open layup even though he started running much earlier than you.
Down:
The most frustrating play(s) of the night. On an opposing fastbreak, dashing back on defense and managed to stop a wide open layup. Ball swings to the trailer on the wing and you manage to prevent and open layup too. A shadow runs behind you and you hope its your teammate after you manage to stall the offense for so long, but its not. An easy lob and an easy basket.

You know, it's acceptable when its 3 on 2 during a fastbreak and another defender running back to make it 3-3. Its ok if your opponent scores on you like that. At least your team is hustling back on D. But if its 2 on 1 and the next person running back is still not your teammate, you know things are fucked up. (Also the fact that it was on more than one play and the fast break wasn't really.......fast)

But recently i've been having good runs with good teams these past few weeks...so i guess its ok to have a shitty night once in a while. Last week i was in a team that was unbeaten the whole two hours....that was really special. Well, i'm looking forward to next week!

The Best Dessert Ever (Also Most Sinful)

Haha i've been talking about it to everyone cause its sooooooooooooooo good and equally sinful! What is it? Its a freaking DURIAN CHOCOLATE CAKE!!!!!!!!!! Recommended to everyone who loves durians or ppl who like it just a little (like me!). For those who are wondering the durian is REAL durian with flesh and all plus the chocolate is very dark and rich.....all yours for RM8.90 per piece. Its cupcake size but eat any more and it feels like your nose is gonna bleed. Make sure you go to gym first! I am estimating at least 1000 Calories in this one (not exaggerating!) Its from a place called Just Heavenly Pleasures at Bukit Damansara and there are many more that i am waiting to try including Death by Chocolate and Banana Cream Pie.............but must burn those calories from the previous indulgence first!

Pictures are from Lots of Cravings and you can read the review there and many other places as well. Pretty cool food blog introed by Jooyee.

Striking balance

So now that the blue moon has come and gone as Heng Lean found himself a job and is not laying at home doing nothing..... officially everyone here is a full-time worker (Jy was one at least).

You know, i used to say that working like is tough and that you have less free time yada yada no social life etc. but now that im into my second month, it doesnt seem too bad. Sure, there are times that you will struggle to keep up with time. Example: you go to work from 7am to 7pm and you come home to eat dinner and then you talk to your gf and then you go out with your friends for drinks and that sounds like you've done heaps in a day! BUT then how about the desk that you havent cleaned? How bout that book you aimed to finish in a month? How about fixing the software on your comp that has been bugging you? Not to mention after doing so much without rest during the day you end up bushed the morning despite getting the mandatory 8 hrs sleep?

In the end, you just adapt to it. I used to whine about how i wouldn't be able to keep up with my gaming needs but now id doesn't seem like a priority now. I'd much prefer to see my friends with the little free time i have to just have some kind of social life even though its just sitting and talking for an hour. Now i understand why my cousin can buy a PSP and not use it and borrowed it to me unconditionally. Where is it now? In my drawer.

In the end, it's about striking a balance, between your social life, alone time, work, hobbies, girlfriend.......and eventually you'll adapt to a routine to suit your needs. Just make sure you enjoy your life everyday =)

Joining the workforce

So im back in the office. Woo hoo. Things didn't start off so well, there weren't many jobs assigned to me, mostly very small stuff that's very uninspiring and uninteresting. Other than that, it's trying to look busy while doing nothing at all. How fun. Thankfully things are starting to pick up a bit, got a hang of Microstation which is the program that they are fond off, did some quick photoshopping and designing and doing some overtime and meeting deadlines.... finally feeling like im officially joining the workforce.

The atmosphere in the office this time is pretty good. The average age group has dropped quite significantly since the last time, so mixing around is pretty easy. There are a few ppl who are actually one year younger than me in the team who are technical officers and a few architecture newbies like me who just came in. The technical ppl are a bit hard to mix since they are very chinese speaking, but they are friendly nonetheless. The seniors that were around the last time were mostly still sticking around, and the annoying one is gone. So all is going well, other than the fact that i worked this Saturday but am getting paid no OT.

Cloverfield joins Top Movies List

By now most of you have already watched Cloverfield, and half you liked it and the rest didn't. This is the first movie i have seen people walking out of the cinema just half an hour into the movie. I even heard from HeXiang that her friend puked after watching it. I did, however had a great time watching this unique film, and has officially become my Best Monster Movie of all time, overtaking the likes of Godzilla, King Kong and Jurassic Park (and many others).

For those living under a shell, Cloverfield is a movie about a monster attacking New York. Its as simple as that. Not much explanation was given as to how the monster came about or whether it was killed at the end. It is, however, filmed from the perspective of regular citizens, not heroes who were trying to save the world. It was what made the movie feel so fresh, and it does make a good job making you believe that you could be the one experiencing all this nightmare and running around the city for your lives while getting chased by some giant ass monsters. I found that this made the movie is more like a ride rather than a film, but it was not a bad thing as it was a very enjoyable one.

Unfortunately, many people could not enjoy the film as much as i did and i perfectly understand why. The camera is very shaky (imagine yourself holding a camera and running your ass off) so it can easily cause dizziness especially people who are sitting towards the front. Its like motion sickness, some people get it some people don't. Another common complaint is a lack of a proper ending but i have to disagree with this. It is a very suiting ending to this kind of film. We are not watching a chick flick where its perfectly predictable and there is always a happy ending.

In conclusion, i highly recommend this to any movie lovers who are open-minded and ready to try something new. There is a chance that it may not be your type of flick, but if it is you will be highly rewarded. 9/10 from me.

Top Movies List:

Best Movie: The Matrix
I remember going to this movie initially to watch all the cool fighting scenes but was surprised to discover a deep and interesting plot that tied the whole movie together. And bullet time was awesome back then. Too bad the sequels were watchable at best.

Best Trilogy: Lord Of The Rings
There is no argument here. Lets move on.

Best Sci-fi Flick: Star Wars Episode 3
Could have dethroned LOTR if it wasn't for Episode 1 & 2. The third installment was basically a Star Wars' fan's wet dream. Features the best lightsabre battles to date.

Best Horror Movie: Sixth Sense
Sorry havent watched that many in this genre but this is the best so far. Had a good story and had a few good frights. Very original at that time.

Best Monster Movie: Cloverfield
Read above.

Best 3d Animation: Ratatouiie
All Pixar movies derserve a nomination except Cars. This was the latest and i think its their best so far.

Best 2d Animation: Lilo & Stitch
Very cute and enjoyable. Why don't they make any of these anymore? 2d art is underappreciated. (I heard Pixar's next film is 2d though so i'm keeping my fingers crossed)

Best Romantic Film: Love Actually, A Walk To Remember
Hard to decide because Love Actually was a light comedy and AWTR was pure romance. I loved most of Love Actually's minis-tories except a few, but very enjoyable overall. AWTR was a surprisingly good performance from Mandy Moore and was very touching and sweet.

Best Comedy: Knocked Up, Wedding Crashers, Shrek 2
Too tough to call considering i watch too many of these, plus we get more jokes as we grow older. These are the recent few on the top of my head that i have personally enjoyed.

Best Chick Flick: 10 Things I Hate About You
My first chick flick turned out to be the best so far. Featured great acting (Heath Ledger, Julia Stiles) and a decent plot and most importantly, a very feel good story.

Best Drama: Forrest Gump
Great story about life and Tom Hanks is excellent. Instant classic.

Best Action: Kill Bill Vol. 1
Very cheesey at times but i enjoyed the art and mindless chopping. (Not to mention showers of blood) Honorable mentions include Die Hard 4 and the Bourne Trilogy.

Best Musical: Grease
King of the cheese. But for some reason the songs are stuck in my head. Hairspray is very good too. I like my musicals to be brainless and cheerful.

Phew, got carried away and the list got longer and longer.